Again, why would Shula be promoted over Jackson and Shurmur if Rivera thought he couldn't so the job and do it well??

Isn't that obvious?

Shula is Rivera's best hope at keeping his job. Not because he is the best OC available, but because he does not have to completely overhaul the current offense.

Hiring an outsider offensive coordinator would mean the entire offensive staff would be gone and a completely new offensive system in place. A new playbook. New terminology for the players to learn. New chemistry to be developed between players and coaches. Often, this can take more than one season to start yielding results.

Rivera does not have more than one season. If the Panthers do not win this year, he is gone. He knows it, everyone knows it.

So put yourself in his shoes. Knowing you can only lose 7 games next season or your ass is fired, would you

1: Hire a completely new offensive staff and implement a new system knowing in all likelyhood it will take a good of time to develop into a good offense if ever at all. or...

2. Promote from within and hope the current offense can be good enough to get you 9 wins. No learning curve, fewer variables.

Lets be clear here. The Shula hire was not made because he was the best candidate. Shula was hired because it presented the best option for Rivera to possibly win 9 games next season. It was a last ditch short term job saving hire. Any considerations past 2013 are an afterthought.

Jackson actually runs a coryell offense. Give him Chud's playbook, and you're going to get much more continuity in the offense than giving it to someone who has never run a coryell offense before.

Shula has a hard time getting the calls to the field when he only had to deal with a simple conservative run-first offense. Imagine the difficulty when we're now accounting for him being brand new to calling an offense in the scheme.

Shula is Rivera's best hope at keeping his job. Not because he is the best OC available, but because he does not have to completely overhaul the current offense.

Hiring an outsider offensive coordinator would mean the entire offensive staff would be gone and a completely new offensive system in place. A new playbook. New terminology for the players to learn. New chemistry to be developed between players and coaches. Often, this can take more than one season to start yielding results.

Rivera does not have more than one season. If the Panthers do not win this year, he is gone. He knows it, everyone knows it.

So put yourself in his shoes. Knowing you can only lose 7 games next season or your ass is fired, would you

1: Hire a completely new offensive staff and implement a new system knowing in all likelyhood it will take a good of time to develop into a good offense if ever at all. or...

2. Promote from within and hope the current offense can be good enough to get you 9 wins. No learning curve, fewer variables.

Lets be clear here. The Shula hire was not made because he was the best candidate. Shula was hired because it presented the best option for Rivera to possibly win 9 games next season. It was a last ditch short term job saving hire. Any considerations past 2013 are an afterthought.

Jackson actually runs a coryell offense. Give him Chud's playbook, and you're going to get much more continuity in the offense than giving it to someone who has never run a coryell offense before.

Shula has a hard time getting the calls to the field when he only had to deal with a simple conservative run-first offense. Imagine the difficulty when we're now accounting for him being brand new to calling an offense in the scheme.

I feel like we would excel in a simple run first offense...just my opinion. Ride Stew, Tolbert, and maybe Williams all day and make Cam a glorified game manager. He's never going to be Brady or Manning and there is nothing wrong with that.

Jackson actually runs a coryell offense. Give him Chud's playbook, and you're going to get much more continuity in the offense than giving it to someone who has never run a coryell offense before.

Shula has a hard time getting the calls to the field when he only had to deal with a simple conservative run-first offense. Imagine the difficulty when we're now accounting for him being brand new to calling an offense in the scheme.

I feel like we would excel in a simple run first offense...just my opinion. Ride Stew, Tolbert, and maybe Williams all day and make Cam a glorified game manager. He's never going to be Brady or Manning and there is nothing wrong with that.

Well that's not continuity, that's changing the scheme. If we want to go to a run first offense, why not find a good run first OC?

I feel like we would excel in a simple run first offense...just my opinion. Ride Stew, Tolbert, and maybe Williams all day and make Cam a glorified game manager. He's never going to be Brady or Manning and there is nothing wrong with that.

idk, it's not like Cam set a bunch of rookie records with zero offseason to bond with his teammates and coaches with a totally new offensive system. Surely if we'd decided to hire the much more highly skilled OC Jackson we'd be able to replicate something close to that success.

Shula has had two seasons now to work with Chud and see how he calls games. Didn't Chud also relay the calls to Shula who then relayed the call to Cam in games? I think Shula will be fine. The real deciding factor is going to be Cam's development this offseason in decision making and mechanics. If he continues to improve there then we'll always have a solid offense.

I feel like we would excel in a simple run first offense...just my opinion. Ride Stew, Tolbert, and maybe Williams all day and make Cam a glorified game manager. He's never going to be Brady or Manning and there is nothing wrong with that.

A game manager that can run like a tight end when the plays break down and throw deep balls like Flacco. With a stingy D, a less conservative Foxball would win games. Similar to what the 9ers are doing. Look what happened when they added Kaep.

You would think that the offense had not been dynamic with all the talk about continuity versus capacity. Exactly what did Jackson or Shurmur do that would produce a higher scoring offense that we have had the past 2 years. What is wrong with keeping the same system and keeping continuity. That is considered one of the things that all teams strive for, yet it is being cast as settling or undesirable based on the OP's response. Our offense has been one of the best one's we have had in our history. What Shula is likely to do is improve the running game and go to more power sets which is what we did at the end in 2012 with great success. Honestly I understand the concern based on what he failed to do in Tampa, but this is not the same offense and has none of the same pieces.

I don't think we need or want a change from what we were doing. Just tweaking it somewhat which is what Shula will do. Why change horses in the middle of the stream when what we are doing is working? And working well.......